SJVN to spend Rs 10 billion, start wind power plant

According to reports, state-owned power producer SJVN Ltd plans to spend close to Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal on a number of power projects that would use a range of fuel sources such as hydro, thermal and wind, chairman R P Singh said.

“We made a capital expenditure of Rs 796 crore in fiscal 2013, most of which went into our 412 mw Rampur hydro electric project in Himachal Pradesh. This year we would spend about Rs 986 crore on several projects, including wind and thermal,” Singh told analysts on a conference call.

The Rampur project would be completed by September and starting December the all the six units will be commissioned by March.

SJVN would also commission its first wind power project, having a capacity of 47.6 mw in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, by August.

“The power purchase agreement for the project has been executed at a price of Rs 5.72 a unit and we expect a return on equity of 13%. The project cost of Rs 300 crore would entirely be equity,” Singh said.

Land acquisition for SJVN’s maiden thermal power project, of 1,320 mw coming up at Chausa in Bihar, is currently on, and pre-construction work would start shortly.

As per a memorandum of understanding for 2013-14 with the Union power ministry, SJVN is committed to commission the Rampur and Khirvire projects, issue tender for pre-qualification of bidders for 51 mw Jakhol Sankri hydel project at Uttarakhand and also float tender for the 588 mw Luhri hydro-electric project at Himachal Pradesh.

The draft project report for Luhri has been submitted to the Central Electricity Authority, while a proposal for another 66 mw project there has been submitted to the central government.
Overseas, SJVN is executing projects in Nepal and Bhutan.